Oedipus Rex

There are some who are born into privelage, who cannot escape it. There are others who must fight their way to success and power. Oedipus was arguably destined to become a king. It's all too easy to presume that if one has such a life of luxury, they are spared the misery and suffering humanity presents to us all. But examining some of greatest public leaders, figures in literature, kings and princes, it is these individuals that seem to go through the worst of worsts. Hamlet loses his beloved father in a brutal and ugly assassination by his own cowardly uncle. In his own grief and confusion, Hamlet initiates a chain of events that lead to one of the most profound and iconic tragedies of Shakespearean literature. Hamlet did however, rise to the occasion when feeling the first pangs of loss. In a twisted heroic attempt to restore justice and honor to his house, Hamlet takes matters into his own hands, and reacts just as irrationally as he is ironically thorough in his motives. Oedipus' rule over Thebes at first appears relatively smooth and peaceful until a plague washes over the city and chaos ensues. After learning and realizing the identity he had sought to escape, Oedipus accepts his fate and exiles himself from his own city to satiate the wrath of the gods, not before blinding himself by gouging out his eyes in self-reticence. It would be an understatement to assert that finding out you had married your mother and murdered your own father would be hard, rather perhaps the most enormous suffering an individual can bare. Oedipus inadvertently martyrs himself, though he never loses his life, he lets go of all he had once held- the power, the prestige, the honor,- and accepts the shame. He does not try to out run his circumstance but falls- hurdles- into that dark abyss unreluctantly and solidifies his honor. This requires an inspiring amount of character, and reveals the real side, I believe, Oedipus cultured. This act of giving of himself was not something that could be forced, or coerced into, this was Oedipus raw, broken.

The Big Question: Does suffering truly bring out the best in human nature? Does it reveal the true side of our character, or the most distorted?

If we are a human born into this world by a father and mother, without our own hand in our conception, we are privy to the crisis and misfortune that accompany life. Suffering. Most people don't purposefully stick their hand on a burner to soak in the sheer pleasure that arises from the smell of searing flesh and crisp exposed nerves. Most people don't enjoy losing a spouse or child to stage four cancer. Ask the successful man on the bus reading the newspaper if he would like to lose everything he's ever worked for in a tragic financial crash and live out the rest of his life in destitute poverty. But try as we may, not one of us- no not one- can predict or avoid the hurt and suffering that seems to hurdle itself in our direction. Who we are when we are faced with ultimate disaster, the pain of loss, the sting of intense human distress, can that fairly and accurately dictate or describe our base human nature? There are stories about men and women rising above circumstances to achieve heroic stature, to overcome suffering and become better people for it. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and critically acclaimed author of Night, witnessed horror upon horror during his enslavement at Auschwitz. The extent of this young man's suffering is immeasurable as he lost every family member dear to him in the death camps and gas chambers, taking the hate of an entire nation deceived by a malicious lie, experiencing the worst evil an individual can go through. And yet he became an advocate for those who were not as fortunate to survive, he became a beacon of light for the witness of the unconquerable human spirit. Luke Skywalker. The iconic hero-turned- villian goes through tremendous suffering and anguish with the loss of his mother and ultimately identity. After another and another miserable move, Luke practically murders his own wife, the mother of his children. Fictional or not, this is a prime example of one individuals "dark" turn after experiencing an emotionally trying crisis and suffering. Instead of expelling fear, hurt, strife like Weisel, this character internalizes and lets the self-torturous elements in himself brew. So, really this is the ultimate question. Who are we when we experience the most monstrous pain and suffering? It is the defining quality that separates the wheat from the chaff, the mire from the muck.